WhatsApp kills support for Nokia S40 devices today

WhatsApp will cease to work on Nokia devices running on the S40 operating system. This includes Asha devices launched over five years ago.

Key Highlights:

WhatsApp will cease to work on S40 devices

This includes Asha devices that were launched around 2011

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If you're using a Nokia S40 device, we've got bad news for you. WhatsApp will stop working on your device by the end of the day. WhatsApp announced over a couple of years ago on its blog that it would kill support for a list of operating systems by the end of 2018 and S40 is part of it. This includes Nokia Asha devices introduced in the market over five years ago, like Asha 201, Asha 205, Asha, 206, Asha 208, Asha 210, Asha 230, Asha 301, Asha 500, Asha 501, Asha 502, Asha 503, and Asha 505.

In a June update to the original blog, WhatsApp wrote, "You won't be able to use WhatsApp on the following platforms for: Nokia S40 after December 31, 2018, Android versions 2.3.7 and older after February 1, 2020, iPhone iOS 7 and older after February 1, 2020". If you own and use a Nokia S40 device, you will have to switch to a newer device to continue using WhatsApp. WhatsApp is currently supported on Android devices running Gingerbread (v2.3.3) or above and on iOS devices running version 8 or later.

Series 40 (or S40) is a software platform developed by Nokia back in the late 90s. It was used in several Asha models that were sold in India around 2011. With WhatsApp introducing a new feature every other month these days, S40 could not have caught up. When WhatsApp was launched for S40 phones, it was solely a messaging application. Today, it supports voice and video calling too, along with more recently introduced features like stickers.

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On a modern Android device like say, the Nokia 3.1 (which costs below Rs 10,000), one can enjoy the latest features of WhatsApp without having to worry about deadlines for app support. WhatsApp only last week introduced picture-in-picture (PiP) mode for Android devices. What this means is that users can watch forwarded WhatsApp videos in a smaller separate window while continuing to text in the chat window.